Richard Galloway
Richard Galloway is the main antagonist of The Black Veil. He is an immortal character and is obsessed with the goddess of death Ankou. He also had an unknown influence on the Master Detective´s life. Biography Early Life and the Great War Richard was born in the town of Dreadmond, a town in Scotland. Richard fought alongside the Allied Forces during the First World War as a part of the British Army. A notable event is that he was part of the Battle at the Somme on 1st of July 1916. He was deadly wounded during that battle in September by an enemy gunshot through the chest. In that moment the goddess of death appeared, ready to take his soul, however, he was able to take a feather of the celestial creature which instantly healed his wounds and make Ankou disappear. From there on he was immortal and invincible. Paris and the search for Jacobi Arden On Silvester 1920 Richard travelled to Paris, France to search for Jacobi Arden, an old man who potentially has more detailed information on Ankou. After reaching Paris via train he searched for the secret rooms of Arden finally finding them in the sewers with the help of a homeless man. After he had reached the hide-out Arden´s butler poisoned him with a glas of contaminated vine and Arden took Ankou´s feather to heal himself. It is hardly implied that through the poison and Arden´s betrayal a second personality grew within Richard Galloway, an evil personality. He was able to break out of the cell he was locked inside and mixed a cure for the poison. While trying to escape Arden´s estate he found a musician locked inside a strange machine and freed him. After finding a way to escape Richard witnessed Arden sacrificing his butler. Later Richard tries to escape through the attic and found Arden handcuffed and gagged inside a closet. In that moment it is revealed that Richard´s second evil personality already took over him and had captured Jacobi and took the feather back. Richard is shocked about not noticing that and in that moment his insanity eventually took over his body and killed Jacobi Arden. It is hardly implied that the evil personality has already interrogated Arden and gained all information about Ankou Jacobi possessed. That seems to be the reason the old man is then killed. The Second World War It is mentioned that Richard Galloway also fought as a soldier of the British Army during the Second World War, but it is unknown in which specific battles or occasions he fought. Later He lived the rest of his life as a wealthy citizen in an Estate in Dreadmond and was studying the magnetic field under the city and donated a lot of money to the city and helped the townsfolk in many different occasions however, he masqueraded himself as "Richard Galloway II." and later "Richard Galloway III." to prevent people from finding out the truth about him and his immortality. He gained the trust of the inhabitants and secretly started working on an underground cave system as a tribute to his obsession Ankou, including for example a giant tower. A giant machine that is capable of capturing the goddess of death is also his creation. His research on Ankou finally revealed that the goddess of death is only capable to stay a short span of time in the real world however, this time span is heavily influenced by the weight of the soul of the person who died to bring her to the real world. Due to this knowledge Richard invented the plan to find somebody with a "heavy soul" and then trap Ankou. Richard himself mentioned that he was also spending a lot of time researching information about the Master Detective and creating a plan that would finally lure the Detective to Dreadmond, because the detective saved so many lives that his soul is as heavy as possible. Richard was convinced that the gift of immortality was given to him by a higher power and so took justice in his own hands and built an underground interrogation room including a torture chamber to ensure punishments. He nearly killed Gerald Sykes who found out that his wife was cheating on him with a colleague and as a result accidently burned down a factory and killed 30 men. In 2017 Richard used the magnetic field to extract the life energy out of the inhabitants and to let them age faster which also caused massive dementia. Many people left the town due to this phenomena, but never suspected Richard Galloway. He eventually attempted to kill the Master Detective which brought Ankou to the real world who is then trapped by Richard. The Detective is able to shut the machine down which led to Ankou killing Richard and taking his soul to the Afterlife. Category:Characters